Second home owners blamed for killing off village life

Stuart Burgess, who headed up the Labour Government’s Commission for Rural Communities, has said places such as Richmondshire urgently need to address the decades long rise in second home ownership which is pushing up house prices and keeping new families out.

Dr Burgess called for councils across the UK to agree to build a dozen new homes in each village on the condition they are reserved for the “key workers” needed to help rural neighbourhoods thrive.

He was speaking as The Yorkshire Post and Richmondshire District Council seek to highlight the growing pressure facing some of thew UK’s most sparsely populated villages.

Richmondshire councillors will today discuss ways of increasing the number of affordable homes in the district with figures showing just six have been built since 2014.

Options on the table include the authority sharing the financial risks and benefits of new affordable schemes with housing associations and working with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority to make sites more attractive for development.

As questions continue over how to best safeguard the countryside, Dr Burgess said there is still a need for the Government to have an independent expert bringing to it the realities of rural life.

“I still think there is a case for a rural advocate to act nationally, putting the case for rural areas,” he said.

“ We have a task with any government of any colour to make the rural case. The perception from government is often that people who live in the countryside are reasonably well off.

“But that does not take into consideration the evidence that shows some 800,000 households live in rural poverty. That’s more than two million people, more than the conurbation of Birmingham.

“The coalition government, which abolished the Commission for Rural Communities, said it has many rural MPs across the country so they don’t need countryside advice. The jury is out on that.”

Dr Burgess said the advice he would be giving if his Commission had not been axed by the coalition would be for a new focus on encouraging villages to accept a handful more affordable homes, with a promise to safeguard properties for local workers.

He said: “I think for the last 20 or 30 years it has got more difficult to keep young people in rural areas.

“The jobs tend not to be there in many rural areas and people leave in search of higher education or jobs.

“But what leads into everything else is that they just can’t afford to stay there, and the reason they cannot afford to stay has been the growth in second homes.

“In some areas we have seen 75 per cent of all homes in rural villages owned by second home owners. And what has happened in Yorkshire and other parts is house prices rocket up. You go to some of the prettiest villages in Yorkshire and prices are forcing young people out.

“Councils need to make sure that new accommodation is earmarked for key workers, teachers, nurses and those who will care for rising number of elderly people in rural areas. We have to say, councils have to say, every village could easily take 12 or 14 affordable homes without altering its ambiance.”